Ball retrievers

ABSTRACT

A BALL RETRIEVER COMPRISING A PLASTICS TUBE HAVING AN OPEN INLET END AND A DEFORMABLE PORTION AT SAID INLET END FOR ALLOWING THE PASSAGE OF BALLS INTO SAID TUBE.

Jan. 26, 1971 s. STANWORTH BALL RETRIEVERS Filed April 4, 1968 INVENTOR:5mm Sihmwoam E am/6 United States Patent 3,558,170 BALL RETRIEVERSStephen Stanworth, Albert Mills North, Barrowford, Lancashire, EnglandFiled Apr. 4, 1968, Ser. No. 718,778 Claims priority, application GreatBritain, Apr. 11, 1967, 16,522/ 67 Int. Cl. A47f 13/06 US. Cl. 29419 6Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A ball retriever comprising a plasticstube having an open inlet end and a deformable portion at said inlet endfor allowing the passage of balls into said tube.

This invention relates to a ball retriever and carrier, which is inparticular intended to be used by golfers, although it could be used inother sports where balls are used, or indeed in any situation where itis required to pick up balls.

According to this invention a ball retriever comprises a plastics tube,and a plastics body part, said body part being in the form of a tube oflarger diameter than said plastics tube; said body part surrounding anupper part of said plastics tube to define an annular collecting chambertherewith, and extending above said tube, the top of said tube beingopen to permit balls to escape from said tube and to fall therefrom intosaid annular collecting chamber; part of said tube extending below saidbody part, the lower extremity of said tube being open but deformed topresent an obstacle to the entry of balls into said tube, said lowerextremity being capable of distending within its own elastic limit topermit a ball to pass obstacle into said tube when said tube is presseddown over a ball.

A golf ball retriever embodying the invention will now be described byway of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-section through a retriever embodying theinvention,

FIG. 2 is a view in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a view of a lid in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 4 is a detail view to a larger scale of the lower extremity of theretriever.

A ball retriever primarily intended for golf balls is formed of threemain parts all of which are made of a synthetic plastics material. Firstthere is a tube 23 hav ing a bore slightly larger than the outsidediameter of a golf ball. (In practice, the bore of the tube 23 should belarge enough to accept the United States Standard golf ball.) It will benoted that the tube 23 is long enough to hold a series of golf balls(say fifteen) placed in a row inside the tube.

The second main part is a body part 22, which is also formed as a tube,but this body part is of considerably larger diameter than the tube 23,and part of the latter extends up into the body part which part projectsbelow the lower end of the body part. At its lower end, body part 22 isjoined to the outside of the inner tube 23, and thus there is producedan annular collecting chamber 28 between the two tubes. Since the bodypart extends above the top of the inner tube (which is open) it ispossible for the balls passing out at the top of the inner tube to fallinto the chamber 28.

The third part is a cover 24 for the otherwise open top end of body part22.

Both ends of tube 23 are open, and the lower end is intended to be usedas a ball inlet, while the upper end acts as a ball outlet. Since it isdesirable to be able to see how many balls are in the retriever, it ispreferred to make the body part 22 of transparent or translucentmaterial, and it may be tinted to improve its appearance.

The inlet end of the tube 23 is formed by rolling over the extremity toprovide a reinforced portion, and then this end portion is deformed,while heat is applied to it, to form the inlet end into the shapeillustrated (see especially FIG. 4). After deformation, the end of thetube is generally a hollow square 12, although the sides of the squarelie on a diameter slightly smaller than that of the plain portion of thetube 23 as indicated at 25 and the corners of the square are radiused asshown at 26.

The internal dimensions of the square 12 are such that a golf ball 51cannot pass through the inlet hole. However, if the inlet end of thetube 23 is pressed hard over the ball (when the latter is supported asit would be when resting on the ground) the sides of the square 12distend towards a circular formation until the ball 15 is able to passthrough the inlet into the tube 23. The design characteristics of theinlet end of the tube must be such that in so distending the walls ofthe deformed part of the tube do not pass the elastic limit of thematerial, and consequently as soon as the equitorial plans of the ballhas passed the construction produced by square portion 12, the wallswill contract again and the ball is held on the inside of the inlet.Moreover, the deformed portion should be capable of retaining itsformation against a steady load applied to it by the weight of balls inthe tube when the retriever is full.

It should be understood that the exact shape of the deformed portion isnot critical. :In fact it could be any noncircular shape, so long as itis possible of distending towards the circular in order to allow a ballto pass. It is important however, to deform the tube itself to producethe inlet constriction, as this provides a very neat and cheapretriever. In use the lower end of the tube is jabbed on to a ball toprovide the force required to open the inlet end. As one ball followsanother into the tube, the balls form a column within it.

In a zone where the relatively small diameter tube 23 merges into therelatively larger diameter body part 22, there is a frusto-conicalportion 27 which is almost cylindrical so that the tube 23 can besecurely fixed within the body 22 by friction welding, that is to say,by spinning one part relative to the other part whilst they are held incontact. The annular space 28 is wide enough to accept a plurality ofUnited States standard golf balls as shown in chain-dotted lines inFIG. 1. A lower end of said body part is radiused as shown in FIG. 1 andmerges with the lower end portion of the tube 23 at such an angle that alowermost layer of balls in the annular space cannot become jammed.

The upper end of the tubular body part is reinforced by being rolledover as shown at 29 and 30 in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, this rollingover varies around the periphery of the end so that the relativelynarrow portions 29 alternate with the relatively wide portions 30.Similarly the outer edge of the cover 24 is reinforced by being rolledover at 31 and has three equally spaced local flats 34. The arrangementis such that the cover can be placed upon the upper end of the body partand turned to bring the flats 34 into underlying relation with theportions 30 as shown in FIG. 1. The cover is then securely connected tosaid body part until being turned relative to said body part to permitits release therefrom. The cover is of generally conical shape so thatgolf balls emerging from the upper end of the tube 23 can fall into theannular space surrounding said tube despite the fact that the latterextends almost to the same height as the top of the tubular body part.It has a relatively short cylindrical portion 32, having a bore with asmaller diameter than the balls, and the end of the cylindrical portionis rolled over at 33.

In use, when the lower or inlet end of the tube 23 is pressed hard overa ball, the end of the tube is distended and the ball is able to passinto said tube (and it may simultaneously push a column of previouslyretrieved balls up the tube 23 for a topmost ball to fall into theannular space 28). The deformable end portion of the tube is capable ofretaining the balls within that tube, but of course the weight of anyballs in the annular space 28 is not imposed upon the constricted lowerend of the tube 23.

When it is desired to release a ball or balls from the retriever it ismerely necessary to remove the cover 24 for the ball or balls to berolled out.

What I claim is:

1. A ball retriever comprising a plastics tube and a plastics tubularbody part, said body part being of larger diameter than said tube andsurrounding an upper part of said tube to define therewith an annularcollecting chamber disposed within the body part and extending above thetop of said tube, said top of said tube being open to permit balls toescape from said tube and to fall therefrom into said annular collectingchamber, said tube having a lower extremity extending below said bodypart and being open at its lower end but deformed to present an obstacleto the entry of balls into said tube, said lower extremity being capableof distending within its own elastic limit to permit a ball to pass saidobstacle up into said tube when the open end of said tube is forciblypressed down over a ball, said body part having a cover for closing itsupper end, and said body part and cover having interengaging partswhereby said cover can be placed upon the upper end of said body partand turned relative to said body part to secure it thereon.

2. A ball retriever according to claim 1, wherein aid body part has acover for closing its upper end, said body part and cover havinginterengaging parts whereby said cover can be placed upon the upper endof said body part and turned relative to said body part to secure itthereon.

-3. A ball retriever according to claim 1, wherein at least said bodypart is made in a transparent plastics material whereby balls containedtherein are visible.

4. A ball retriever according to claim 1, wherein said lower extremityof said tube is deformed to a substantially hollow square cross-section,the perpendicular distance between opposite sides of said hollow squarebeing less than the diameter of said tube.

5. A ball retriever according to claim 1, wherein said body part andtube are integrally united.

6. A ball retriever comprising a plastics tube and a plastics tubularbody part, said body part being of larger diameter than said tube andsurrounding an upper part of said tube to define therewith an annularcollecting chamber disposed within the body part and extending above thetop of said tube, said top of said tube being open to permit balls toescape from said tube and to fall therefrom into said annular collectingchamber, said tube having a lower extremity extending below said bodypart and being open at its lower end but deformed to present an obstacleto the entry of 'balls into said tube, said lower extremity beingcapable of distending within its own elastic limit to permit a ball topass said obstacle up into said tube when the open end of said tube isforcibly pressed down over a ball and said body part having a snap-oncover for closing its upper end.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,203,170 6/1940 MacDonald294--l9(.1)

2,760,807 8/1955 Watson 294-l9(.l)

FOREIGN PATENTS 1,429,211 4/1965 France 294l9(.l)

682,899 11/1952 Great Britain 29419(.1)

EVON C. BLUNK, Primary Examiner D. D. WATTS, Assistant Examiner

